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In: Common Cuckoo Ca: Cucut Da: Gøg De: Kuckuck Es: Cuco común Fi: käki Fr: Coucou gris It: Cuculo Nl: Koekoek No: Gjøk Pt: Cuco-canoro Sv: Gök US: Common Cuckoo Ru: Обыкновенная кукушка Bird News Extra subscribers should log in to view an enhanced species page.
IdentificationCuckoos are blue-grey birds with white, closely barred underparts. Their short wings and long tail are suggestive of a Sparrowhawk, but the wings are clearly pointed more like a falcon. However, their fluttering flight with quick shallow wing-beats is distinctive, mainly because the wings are always held below the horizontal level. Juveniles are usually a dull dark brown, heavily marked with black and with a pale patch on the nape. HabitatBreeds on moorland, wasteground, reedbeds and woodland edges. BehaviourCuckoos always lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and leave the foster parents to incubate and rear them. As soon as the young Cuckoo hatches, it shuffles around in the nest and pushes out any object which comes into contact with the middle of its back and this causes it to eject any of its foster parent's eggs or young. Each female Cuckoo will specialise in one species of host and will produce eggs which are very similar to the true eggs of that species. This reduces the risk of the foster parents recognising the foreign egg and ejecting it. After hatching, the young Cuckoo may look nothing like a young Meadow Pipit, for example, but its huge orange gape provides the same stimulus as that of a young pipit and so the parents just can't stop feeding it. MigrationMigratory, with all European birds heading to sub-Saharan Africa (mainly east Africa), although some birds found as far south as Namibia and South Africa. This information is taken from the BirdFile on the appropriate BirdGuides DVD-ROM. As well as video and sounds, our CD- and DVD-ROMs contain additional text on Voice, Sexing, Ageing, Food, Nests and Eggs and more.
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